A thread for scientific nerdiness

[Friday]

@Lionheart What did you think?

Mod Note:

Link & image only posts shall be deleted. But if you can post your thoughts on the link, we can merge the 2 posts together, if you’re outside of your edit window.

 

[Rose White]

I just heard an explanation of reality that was intriguing and funny.

We’re all a bunch of NPC’s living in a simulation created by God (who is something like a teenager in their basement) and when we get a feeling of intuition or “message from God” that leads us to do big important things it’s because some creature living outside the simulation has tuned in and is playing as our character. And the let down after such an experience is because the creature outside the simulation has stopped playing and we go back to being an NPC.

 

[Rose White]

It’s interesting to me that vaginal fluids are so acidic that they can bleach and break apart cotton fiber bonds in fabric.

 

[Rose White]

When the sun was a million years old that was about equivalent to a three day old baby human in terms of its lifespan.

 

[Rose White]

I want to talk about Neuralink with anyone who wants to talk about it.

My understanding…

• A brain chip that interfaces with computers
• Has 96 wires only micrometers thick that have a total of 3072 electrodes
• A robot surgically implants the device and connects the electrodes to neurons
• A person with the implant can think of what they want to say or focus on what they want to do and a computer can speak the words or move the thing
• Information can go the other way, from the computer into the chip and therefore the brain
• Could potentially give sight to blind
• Plans for the future are multiple chips with up to 10,000 electrodes implanted in a mesh

Here is a link to the pub med article about what the neuralink neural implant is and how it works in rats. The first human trial was announced at the end of January this year but there has not been much information available about it.

An Integrated Brain-Machine Interface Platform With Thousands of Channels

Brain-machine interfaces hold promise for the restoration of sensory and motor function and the treatment of neurological disorders, but clinical brain-machine interfaces have not yet been widely adopted, in part, because modest channel counts have limited ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Here is an article about neural implants in general and why they are being developed. From the article Musk says initially for people with disabilities but eventually for healthy people to *keep pace with AI*. <insert relevant emoji>

Several companies are testing brain implants – why is there so much attention swirling around Neuralink? Two professors unpack the ethical issues

Brain-computer interface devices have the potential to boost users’ autonomy, especially for people who experience paralysis. But that comes with risks, as well.

theconversation.com

 

[Rose White]

We don’t have water receptors on our skin, wetness is interpreted through sensations of temperature and touch/pressure.

 

[Rose White]

I just learned about the mammary ridge. A pair of lines on human abdominal torso where eight fatty tissue pads exist. They run from the armpits to the groin. During fetal development they are the same tissue as breast tissue but are absorbed before birth except for the two breasts. When people have an extra nipple they are always along these mammary ridges.

 

[Ecdysis]

I guess it's like in cats and dogs...? But we evolved to only develop the top two, whereas cows evolved to develop the bottom four...?

 

[Rose White]

@Ecdysis I believe so!

 

[Friday]

I just learned about the mammary ridge. A pair of lines on human abdominal torso where eight fatty tissue pads exist. They run from the armpits to the groin. During fetal development they are the same tissue as breast tissue but are absorbed before birth except for the two breasts. When people have an extra nipple they are always along these mammary ridges.

And curiously enough? Saliva COMMUNICATES to NIPPLES. Even in men. Creating a regulatory baseline of temperature, etc., for the infant to emulate. So whilst the effect is the strongest in the lactating female? “Kangaroo Care” is best done shirtless, in both men & women, with sick infants. As there are hormonal/neurochemical transfers of info between the infant and caregiver, most strongly located in nipples/lymph nodes, but also throughout the chest. Of both sexes.

How fawking cool is LIFE? And it’s tenacity/adaptivity?!?

 

[Rose White]

So I found out that eye color change surgery is a thing. Yep. Only to go from darker to lighter. They laser-blast the melanocytes in the iris to destroy them. Just humans doing human things.

 

[user27357]

Today i was told the earths rotation is affected by the melting of the polar ice caps. I am not a global warming denier, but some of the extrapolation gets ridiculous. in terms of rotating mass the caps are minimal if even discernible, but we are being told that there will be a second of time that needs to be adjusted to compensate for the change in rotation caused by global warming. Hoo boy. Maybe if we all drive our cars really fast in the same direction at the same time…..oh never mind. global warming is now affecting time.